Find out how popular the last name Halsey is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Halsey.

Halsey, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Halsey surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Halsey in America

Halsey is the 4654th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Halsey surname appeared 7,619 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 3 people would have the surname Halsey.

We can also compare 2010 data for Halsey to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Halsey

The surname Halsey is of English origin, deriving from a habitation name referring to someone from the village of Halsey in Essex. This place name is believed to come from the Old English words 'halh' meaning 'nook' or 'hollow' and 'ieg' meaning 'island' or 'dry ground in a marsh'.

The earliest recorded spelling of the surname dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086 where it appears as 'Halsige'. Other early spellings include Halseye in 1275 and Halsey in 1327. These variations reflect the evolution of the name's pronunciation and spelling over time.

One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sir Hugh Halsey, a knight who lived in the 13th century and held lands in Essex. In the 14th century, records show a John Halsey who was a merchant in London.

The Halsey family established itself as a prominent landowning family in Hertfordshire during the 16th and 17th centuries. Notable members include Thomas Halsey (1528-1591), who served as a Member of Parliament, and his son James Halsey (1559-1612), who was also an MP and a Justice of the Peace.

Another prominent figure was Sir Thomas Halsey (1615-1679), an English politician and landowner who served as a Member of Parliament for Hertfordshire. He was a supporter of the Parliamentarian cause during the English Civil War.

In the 18th century, Robert Halsey (1703-1769) was a successful merchant and shipowner in New York City. He was instrumental in the establishment of the city's maritime trade with the West Indies.

The name Halsey has also been associated with several notable individuals in more recent history, such as the American poet and writer Robert Lowell Halsey (1855-1920) and the singer-songwriter Ashley Frangipane, better known by her stage name Halsey (born 1994).

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Halsey

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Halsey.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Halsey was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Halsey has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Halsey was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Halsey, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!